Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are Kirk Cousins's MNF issues real? Do the Bears regret not signing Teddy?

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears play Monday night so Matthew Coller got together with Ramie Makhlouf to talk about whether the Bears regret their QB decision this offseason, who the top Vikings and Bears of the last decade are and whether there's a bizarre reason the Vikings struggle in Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizway or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. I'm Shanae Obumaker. Golden, Colorado, and as always, like Emmanuel Acho. People that show love to me, I forever got their back. Vivica A. Fox. If the foundation isn't right, then the rest of it's going to go wrong from there. And more. Subscribe to Front and Center today. Welcome to a very special Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, and joining me, the biggest Chicago Bears fan I know, Rami Makhlov, for some hot routes.

What's up, Rami? I am ready to go. I know all the hot routes. I got the entire route tree memorized. You just give me a little signal, Collar, and I am ready to go, as always, my friend. I'm doing the hot routes. I got the entire route tree memorized. You just give me a little signal collar, and I am ready to go as always, my friend. I'm doing well. How are you? I am good. I was going to say, well, people probably haven't heard us together in a little while, so just let everyone know that you're doing okay and how nervous you are for Bears-Vikings. I'm well. I've

been doing really well. As you know, we were just talking about it before you hit record there. I'm sort of auditioning for my dream job in Chicago, so fingers crossed, and so far so good with that. And other than that, just trying to keep myself busy, man, while I'm unemployed. So there, I'm doing well. I'm not that nervous about Bears and Vikings. I was talking to our old friend Rossoss brenda last night on his own are we allowed to mention other oh sure yeah i know you're very you're very petty and i don't want to take extremely so but it's so i told ross yesterday that just on the law of probabilities like the bears aren't a great football team but i don't think they're bad enough a football team that they should lose four games in a row and the vikings aren't a terrible

football team but i don't think good enough a football team that they should lose four games in a row and the Vikings aren't a terrible football team but I don't think good enough a football team that they should be winning three games in a row so I'm just playing the laws of probability here and thinking that the Bears should win it's going to be ugly and it'll probably be close because that's how the Bears usually win but I'm feeling pretty good that the Bears get a win on Monday it's really the only way that the Bears can win at this moment but we'll get into some of that. And all I have to say, and this is an inside joke, but to Ross Brendel, tell him to stick to jazz. Okay? Tell him to stick to jazz.

Leave sports to the Purple Insider podcast. Thank you. All right. Well, let's get right into it. It's been a while since we've done a Hot Routes. I think we had an off-season version. And really, like, even since there's been so much Vikings news the show has not had as many opportunities for hot routes so let's get right into it there's news in the NFL today

and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how with our spin on football headlines. With a mix of frozen tundras. Let's be a cold-runner team. Net rolls. I want a hot new ball! And grass game jerseys. The good old-fashioned guts was probably the biggest difference in the game.

First question is very insulting to your Chicago Bears fandom. That was my intent. Here's the question. Pick one of these Bears quarterbacks to lead a potential game-winning drive. All right? Jim Harbaugh, Eric Kramer, Shane Matthews, Josh McCown, Kyle Orton, or Rex Grossman. Which one of those Bears quarterbacks would you pick if you had to lead a game-winning drive to beat the Vikings, Rami? I hate you so much for this question.

I almost canceled this appearance simply because of this question when I first read it. And how dare you leave the greatest Bears quarterback of all time off this list? Intentionally. Jake Cutler. Yes, I did that intentionally. So here was my thought process going over this. The best quarterback on this list in terms of their time with the Chicago Bears is Eric Kramer. I think we've talked about Eric Kramer before.

And statistically, he may have been the greatest Chicago Bears quarterback ever. I still think from a tools, skills, talent standpoint, it's Jay Cutler but statistically the seasons that Eric Kramer put up were really I mean they jump off the page at you when you look at the history of Bears quarterbacks he's the best quarterback on this list but but I don't remember a lot of comeback game-winning drives in the waning moments of the fourth quarter from Eric Kramer. So I was looking at this list as far as who has that magic touch in crunch time. And Rex Grossman had a few comebacks, but those are mostly fueled by the defense and big returns by Devin Hester. Josh McCown has a little bit of clutch in him,

and Jim Harbaugh has a little bit of clutch in him for sure. But I think the guy who I seem to have the most recollection of really leading some fourth quarter drives some long fourth quarter drives for game-winning touchdowns with Kyle Orton and he also probably outside of Eric Kramer has the biggest arm on this list so if you need to get chunk yardage from one of these terrible terrible quarterbacks who you're forcing me to pick from i'm probably going with kyle orton for the flair of the dramatic and the big arm okay it's also sad when you say like going for the arm talent of kyle orton okay so statistically speaking you do not have the right answer i don't no you know

i have the chicago bears historic fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives so let's just go by game-winning drives of course your guy the quarterback that i've never met anyone who's overrated more in his life jay cutler is number one all time by a lot of course yeah game-winning drives number two is Jim Harbaugh who had nine really in in 65 total decisions so 35 of his wins included a fourth quarter comeback Jim McMahon naturally is after that then your guy Eric Kramer out of his 18 wins one out of every three included wow fourth quarter comeback by the way this is really funny Mitch Trubisky actually is sixth all-time in Chicago Bears game-winning drives, which is super funny.

Now, I didn't give you Mike Tomczak, but he had six. Rex Grossman had six. Oh, I would have took Tomczak for sure if you gave me Tomczak. Now, the highest concentration of fourth-quarter comebacks to wins is Jim Miller, who had six out of his 15 wins. And Kyle Orton, the guy you wrongly picked, had only three. Really? Only three game wins.

Why do I feel like Kyle Orton was doing this every week? I was just going on recall. You know, I don't do research, Tyler. No, I knew that you wouldn't. So that's why I love the question, that you wouldn't come with the statistical backing on it. I just find it hilarious that Mitch Trubisky is one of the best all time in terms of fourth quarter comeback. That's the only reason you asked this question was to point out that. I'm going to drop that.

God, I hate you. All right. Can I ask you a side question here? Sure. What do you think becomes of Mitchell? What do you think becomes of Trubisky? Like, what's his career? Does he have the EJ Manuel career where he goes and is a backup

and then they don't even really want to stick with him and that's kind of it? Does he someday get another chance? Does he Ryan Tannehill this thing or Rich Gannon this thing? Like, what's Mitch Trubisky's career trajectory? I think if the right coach gets their hands on him. Now, Tannehill was in the running for an MVP last year. Rich Gannon, if I'm not mistaken, again, I don't do research, he won an MVP, did he not?

He did, yes, he did. I don't know if Trubisky will ever be that good, but I do think there is more juice to squeeze out of that lemon, and I think he's at least good enough to stick on a roster for like one more contract and be a backup, and a dependable backup backup and a guy who comes in and gives you a chance and maybe even wins a starting job somewhere down the line i don't know i don't think he'll ever be as good as tannahill or gannon but i think there's there's

more to get out of that guy and i think there will be another chapter in the mitchell trubisky story wherever that may be what percentage do you assign from mitch trubisky's failure to mitch Trubisky story, wherever that may be. What percentage do you assign from Mitch Trubisky's failure to Mitch Trubisky just being bad at throwing a football and to Matt Nagy for running the same offense all the time? And I'll give you a very interesting stat that Nick Foles, his quarterback rating when running play action, gets one of the biggest boosts of any quarterback in the league versus not play action,

and yet runs play action about the least of anyone in the NFL. And this was the same thing with Trubisky last year, where they just refused, as the whole league is running play action, to ever really do that. And it just seems like it was kind of one year where everyone was a little surprised by the things they did, and then they just thought that that would keep up, and the Chip Kelly effect with Matt Nagy. But I also think that Trubisky just throws the ball over people and misses them on easy throws. So, like, what percentage do you assign? I would say it's – he – Nagy owns at least 40% of the blame for why Mitchell Trubisky isn't –

you haven't gotten the most out of him. You're right. He can't read defenses. He's not that accurate of a deep passer. But at the same time, like, dude, you were hired to come in and mold this raw lump of clay that was Mitchell Trubisky. He had 12 starts in college, Collar. It's not like Nagy came in and had a finished product that he knew what he was working with.

Ryan Pace and the Bears had to have looked at Matt Nagy and said, look, this guy is really raw, but he's got these abilities, X, Y, and Z abilities, and he struggles in X, Y, and Z areas. So we need you to get the most out of him and mold him into the best quarterback that he can be and matt maggie never did that and never did the things to get the most out of him you mentioned play action but also just let the dude run with the football more and last year he had a shoulder injury and i thought well maybe they're just protecting him and that's why it was his non-throwing shoulder but still that's that's something that could keep you out long term if it gets worse so I thought maybe they're protecting him and that's why you're not seeing Mitchell Trubisky run with the football very much but he came in 100 healthy this year and in those first three games we didn't see

Mitchell Trubisky run the football that much so and Matt Nagy has a track record of not getting the most out of guys, out of players not hitting ceilings in his offense. Last week I was listening to the station. I've done a few hits on 670 to score in Chicago. And Tom Thayer, borderline Hall of Fame offensive lineman from those 80s Bears teams, and he's been the color commentator for like going on two decades now on Bears Radio. He said he thinks David Montgomery has the abilities to be one of the top running backs in this league, but we're not seeing the best version of David Montgomery because of the supporting cast and because of the offense that he's playing in.

You've got Montgomery, Tariq Cohen. You can go down the list of guys who maybe aren't great offensive players, but should certainly be a lot better. And you just don't get the most out of him in Matt Nagy's system and Matt Nagy's play calling. Matt Nagy, as we speak, is calling another run out of the shotgun right into the guard. It's just over and over and over. It's just like the Texans. It's like some of the teams are so lacking in inventiveness. This is where you have to give the Vikings credit, that they are an inventive run team that is very multiple.

They've got power schemes and zone schemes and all these different things to highlight Delvin Cook, where it seems like Matt Nagy doesn't even show up for the run game meetings on a weekend. Let's get to our next question here. Because, of course, you host you hosted in Minnesota you are very familiar with the stylings on national television specifically Monday Night Football of Kirk Cousins you got to analyze post-game several of his Monday Night shortcomings so tell me is his 0-9 Monday Night Football record career-wise uh is that a thing that you believe

in is he haunted is he cursed is there something to it or is this just a bout with randomness for Kirk Cousins I don't believe in like I'm not well I can't say I don't entirely believe in like cosmic forces and curses and there there are There are things beyond our understanding, Kyle. There are things beyond our understanding. But I don't think that they really dabble in sports. I'm a lifelong Cubs fan. I'm a lifelong Cubs fan, but I never believed that the organization was cursed. I thought their curse was Tribune ownership.

And when they sold the team to people who actually gave a damn and wanted to win and those people hired people who knew what they were doing surprise the Cubs were pretty consistently a good baseball team and won a world series so that's crazy I don't think that the dark forces are working against Kirk Cousins I don't think that that's going on but I do think that there is something to human nature and how that plays in the results of professional sports namely Kirk Cousins and football games and some people just tighten up on a big stage I mean that that's just the reality of it and some people will hear the narrative that they've tightened up on the stage a few times already, and then they tighten up that much more.

And I think that there might be something to that when it comes to Kirk Cousins, something between the ears. You can call it a curse if you want. You can call it the yips. Call it whatever you want. But I do think that there is something that holds Kirk Cousins back from being the best quarterback that he can be on Monday night. But he sure didn't shy away from the stage and the spotlight in the clip I saw of him on Twitter yesterday as the lead singer in an acapella group, which ruined my entire night.

I don't know if you've seen this clip, but it literally ruined my entire night. What was that? Where is that from and why? I don't know where it's from. It looks like high school or early college, maybe. But, you know, I just thought it was that's Kirk for you. Like Kirk is not going to be in a competition for lifting pickup trucks or something like he's just not going to surprise you. That means Andy Bernard from the office. pickup trucks or something like he's just not gonna surprise you that he's andy bernard from the office yeah no no it didn't okay i mean that's that is who kurt cousins is i mean just he is not uh going to ever be mistaken with a badass right so it surprised me but i do support the arts

so if you are singing an acapeppella group, good for you. Like do a big chant. If his backup singers like miss a note or a beat, he just completely falls apart. Starts to like point and tell them how to do it. Like points to the sheet music. See, that was a C sharp and you had a C. No, but going back to the Monday night thing, I think it's mostly between his ears. You know, yesterday I was watching Hugh Grant on the Stephen Colbert show,

and after being an actor and a very successful actor for like 20 years, he suddenly, one night, was working on Broadway and got stage fright and just completely froze up, and it like stopped his entire career in its tracks. So there are like mental glitches and stuff, man, that we don't always have complete control over, and I think there is something to the big stage and the spotlight of Monday night when it comes to Kirk Cousins. So I looked into this a couple years ago, and you're not surprised by that,

and ran all the numbers and looked at all the PFF grades and looked back at all the games that he lost. I went with just prime time, and I couldn't find a huge discrepancy in the numbers between what he usually does what i found is they usually play good teams if you're going to be on national tv that you usually end up are going up against somebody good and if you think about the game on maybe it wasn't a Monday night, maybe it was a Sunday night football against the Rams, not the Rams, the Bears in 2018, that he did not play well at all, but the Bears defense was number one in the league that year, and they were really good, and they were carrying that team to being, you know, a competitor for the NFC North, so, you know, you go into a big game like that, that's who you're going to play, and I was going to bring up what the reason my brain said Rams talk about glitches was the Thursday

night football game he played against the Rams, where he was absolutely terrific, showed no signs of being nervous or anything else like that. 2018, he also beat the Packers on national TV. So, you know, I don't know. I don't know if there's any particular glitch. If I had to guess one thing, if you're a little bit a person who designs out their week like Kirk Cousins does by 10-minute segments, and there was a story about him,

I do wonder if Monday throws things off. Like if there's some sort of here's how my week is designed all the time, kind of like with daylight savings time, there's more car accidents after daylight savings time. Because everyone's brain just gets, like, thrown off. I don't know if that's an excuse. But he hasn't played so significantly worse on Monday that I would say it's

anything except for his team usually wasn't the better team. And that usually in his career, when he's playing against a team that's better, he does not come out the winner. I don't plan out my week in 10 minute increments no but I'm I'm very very routine oriented and you you throw me off my routine just a little bit and it can mess me up collar and I remember jumping sports here for a second Giannis when he had some struggles in when they first entered the bubble they were playing a lot of afternoon games and yannis came out and said he was like

look i'm used to playing basketball at like seven eight o'clock at night there's like a time i wake up there's a time i eat there's a time i work out you know what i mean and like there's a rhythm to your day that you just get used to before stepping out onto the court or onto the field and i think that getting sort of pushed out of that rhythm can have a real effect on people, for sure. I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. For all of you hunters out there,

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if he doesn't play well but more of some people might be impacted more than others maybe that's what happens to him or maybe not and he'll throw for 400 yards and four touchdowns. It could just be the randomness gods. If you think about it, this is a total aside, but there was a study about flipping coins. They had people imagine that they were flipping a coin, write down the results, and then actually do it. And the biggest difference was the people never imagined the randomness. They would actually flip 15 heads in a row and they never would have imagined that could happen but it's so random that it will even out 50 50 over a long period of time but in a short period of time like nine games it could go the wrong direction anyway

let's move on to the next question um so the uh the the bears quarterback position i i seem to want to keep going back to this. I don't know why. I can't imagine why. I cannot imagine why. Maybe it was random. It just showed up random. I picked from all the positions and quarterback kept coming up. Do they regret having not signed Cam Newton or Teddy Bridgewater,

and who's playing quarterback for the Bears in 2021? Cam Newton, I don't think so. Going back to what we were talking about with Mitchell Trubisky, Matt Nagy has a very specific idea in his mind of what he wants his offense to look like and the role that he wants his quarterbacks to play in those offenses. And I don't think a guy like Cam Newton is what he has in mind. I think Cam Newton is the most talented quarterback that was available on the market this past offseason. I just don't trust him in the hands of Matt Nagy.

That's why I say no there. Teddy Bridgewater, who I think you would probably remember this better than I would, Collar. There was a few hours there where it was being reported that Teddy Bridgewater was in agreement on a contract with the Bears. And, you know, I always sort of poked Vikings fans for their love of Teddy Bridgewater and called him a mediocre average quarterback. And he's played above that this year, but I still don't think he's a great quarterback. But he's a good quarterback.

And honestly, when I look at what Matt Nagy wants to do in an offense and wants from his quarterback, I feel like Teddy Bridgewater might have been the perfect fit and would have been a great locker room fit too. And a guy who actually could have provided some steadiness and some leadership from the quarterback position that they kind of need right now. So as much as I knocked Teddy Bridgewater in the past when I was working in Minnesota, I do think he's probably the guy who would have been the right fit for this Bears offense and for Matt Nagy.

It would have been a lot like his 2015 situation where the offensive line is abysmal, which Chicago's is. How about Chicago's O-line being worse than the Vikings at this moment? And so he would have had to get the ball out quickly. He would have had to use some of his escapability at times, which he's really shown this year in Carolina, has sort of bounced back, and maybe even it's better than it was in 2015, and just not make big mistakes, try to play the defensive game. That's a hard tightrope to walk,

but Teddy is one of the quarterbacks who can do it. And the way that I always explain Teddy to you was he's a lot like Jim McMahon, where he will kind of give you some frustrating moments where he's not throwing the ball down the field like you want, but he also doesn't turn the ball over. He knows how to win defensive battles, that sort of thing. And I think he would have been perfect for Chicago. Carolina is a bad football team, and yet he's had them in a lot of games, including against Kansas City. But they can't stop anybody on defense. a bad football team and yet he's had them in a lot of games including against Kansas City but they

can't stop anybody on defense him with a good defensive team would have probably won a couple of more games than they've won so far this year now who's the quarterback in 2021 for a second I stopped listening there after you said you compared him to Jim McMahon because I was just picturing Teddy Bridgewater with like a spiky mullet and a white headband and sunglasses. That's a Photoshop somewhere. Who's playing quarterback in 2021? Most likely, you're going to have like a middle-of-the-road journeyman QB. Maybe even Nick Foles back for another round.

They'll sell us that he'll have a full offseason under his belt, and he and Naggy can work together and it's going to be much better and look better this time around i won't buy it but that's how they'll try and sell it so i think it'll probably be a a journeyman middle of the road nick folze type of qb and or a rookie that that they draft this year in the first three rounds and you start with the journeyman eventually handed off to the rookie like we saw a few years ago with glennon and trubisky is sort of a replay of that but but i don't know if you heard this caller uh jerry jones is at it again and was doing his

weekly radio hit as most you know nfl owners do around the country was doing his weekly radio hit in dallas and uh they asked him you know if you end up with a top top three top five pick could you see yourself going and drafting a quarterback and jerry jones can't resist giving the most honest and juicy answer you could probably give and said yeah i think that is that is something that we would consider which would put dak Prescott on the trading block needing a new contract the Bears get out from some contracts after this year and say what you want about Ryan Pace he has been aggressive in making trades to either move up in the draft or going to get a Khalil Mack type of guy if Dak Prescott hits the trading block or that

Dallas pick hits the trading block and you can move up in into the top end of the first round of the draft to go and get your guy I think that's something that Ryan Pace and the Bears would definitely be in in the discussion to go and do one thing about the NFL today that I feel like has changed from the days in which the Bears were bringing in Craig Erickson and Steve Walsh and Eric Kramer and so forth, and Dave Craig, is that there's always another quarterback who's going to be available. That from year to year, you're going to be able to find someone. And that just wasn't the case, I think, even in recent history.

But if you were a team in the quarterback market this year, you could get Cam Newton or Teddy Bridgewater or Tom Brady. Those guys were available, and that will, I think, continue to be the case as more teams look at the expensive contracts and go, I don't know, or they look at drafts that are going to be, I think, deeper with more talent as more college quarterbacks get developed and are farther ahead. This year, there's five or six guys who could be first-round picks at the quarterback position. And so I think that if you're the Bears, it's smart to keep an eye on that situation or even just look at the draft, too, because maybe the guy you take late in the first ends up being pretty good.

Okay, so PS5 is coming out, and I used to love to play Madden. Don't play a lot anymore. But if you were doing an all-Madden team draft of just Bears and Vikings over the last 10 years, give me your top three picks between the Bears roster and the Vikings to start your Madden team with. All right. I'm a big believer in the difference maker type of player, the guy who can flip a game on one play. I need one of those on either side of the ball. And so I look at both teams and I say, all right, who's the biggest difference maker?

Who's the guy who flipped the field most often or had the greatest ability to flip the field at any given moment in a football game. And I think when you look at the Bears, you're obviously picking from the defensive side of the football because they haven't had that type of offensive playmaker in my life for the most part outside of that guy who's hanging over my shoulder. Are you showing the video of this? I'm not going to.

You're pointing to Walter Payton. I have Walter Payton over my shoulder. Other than him, we haven't had that type of guy, and he didn't play in the last 10 years, so he's not eligible. So I'm taking Khalil Mack for the Bears. That's a guy who came in. They were a bad football team caller, and Khalil Mack instantly made them a good football team.

I know Matt Nagy got Coach of the Year that year and a lot of the credit for that, but that was all defense, and that was all Khalil Mack just terrorizing quarterbacks and those quarterbacks putting the ball into the hands of Chicago Bears players so he's a game wrecker he changes the game on a single play at any given moment give me Khalil Mack on the defensive side of the football flip side I'm taking Stephon Diggs on the offensive side of the football. I don't know about you. I said some not-so-nice things about Josh Allen when the Vikings made that trade. I was like, man, he wasn't happy with Kirk Cousins. Wait until he sees what Josh Allen is throwing out there.

He's actually made Josh Allen look like a good quarterback. I still don't think Josh Allen is a good quarterback, but he's making him look like one at the moment. And Stephon Diggs, I think, was slightly underappreciated in Minnesota and massively underappreciated and underrated around the country when you have the discussion about wide receivers. So those are my two guys. Then we have to address the most important position on the football field.

Do we not, Matthew Collar? Guard, right? We got to go and get a guard. In Minnesota, that's what it is. And a fullback with a neck roll. Yes. I'm going to go unorthodox and call the most important position on the football field a quarterback. So now we're talking about quarterbacks of the last 10 years between the Bears and the Vikings.

Give me Jay Cutler. I'm sorry. I knew you'd go there. Give me Jay Cutler. I knew you'd go there. Is he not Cutler. I knew you'd go there. Is he not the best quarterback of those two teams of the last 10 years? Him and Cousins are pretty similar for different reasons. Like, they're similar to where you always would have ranked them,

like 12th in the league, and they would have frustrated you, and they would have excited you at times, and they ultimately would have disappointed you many times. And I just think there's a lot alike about those two guys that it might be a tough call. Maybe if you wanted to go full, like, Vikings fan style, you might say Teddy there would be, like, the Teddy that he could have become after 2015. But I'm thinking of the Cutler that could have become, because I'm a big believer

that the bears just sabotaged that dude man they put him between bad offensive lines they never gave him great receivers to work with until his last two or three years i got brandon marshall and elshon jeffrey and martell's bennett which he finally started to look like a great quarterback when they did that surprise surprise and they were changing offensive coordinators every year or two when he was here they ruined that dude man so you can talk about the teddy that could have been and fair enough like that was a gruesome injury and the guy was on his way to a really good career but the jay cutler that could have been man i really think that guy had hall of fame ability all of fame ability he just needed he just needed the right place to grow into that type of quarterback and never got it.

So since I don't think that the quarterbacks quite make this list, if you wanted to go most talented, I might even say that Sam Bradford was the most talented, but by even the time the Vikings got him, his legs didn't work anymore, and he still was, like, decent. I think I would go with Harrison Smith as the top player here because i think safety has become an underrated position everyone attacks the safeties all the time and i think he's a hall of fame talent khalil mac i will agree with but if you already selected khalil mac and we were going back and forth i will take akim hicks as the most dominant player and boy has he murdered the vikings

in recent years and if you have stefaniggs, then I think, you know, there's a part of me that wanted to be like Matt Forte, cause he was sort of underrated and a good player, but he's not Delvin Cook. And I understand the positional value, but I think Delvin Cook is in a different category when he's at his best. There would be maybe a competition there between Adrian Peterson, who won MVP in 2012 if we're going last decade, and Cook. But I think I give the slight edge if I'm drafting them to Cook because he will pass block, and that could be helpful for us.

And touch the ball out of the backfield. Adrian Peterson didn't do a ton of that. Only when the Lions game-planned him to do so for only God knows why. But that was a different rant from earlier in the week. All right. So last question for you. And I'm going to have you just answer one part of this because I don't care about the serious reasons. But give me the most not serious reason that the Vikings have lost 16 of their last 20 in Chicago,

the most pot shot theory you can come up with. It's a city you can have a lot of fun in, Matthew Collins. Is it not? In Chicago, not in the city. Like the food, the drinks, whatever type of nightlife you're looking for. Like whether it is, you know, the stereotypical thing that most people would think of with football players and nightlife, the strip clubs, they got some great ones in Chicago. They also like if you're looking for a karaoke bar, some of the best karaoke bars in the world are if you're looking for a nightclub, like a dance club type of environment. You got that like whatever you're looking for that is going to make you not want to get up in the morning and go run into other human beings headfirst, full speed,

you will find it in Chicago. And I think that that is which, which, and this was another thing that came up with the podcast that shall not be mentioned again on your podcast. Take that, Ross. I think that this year the Vikings maybe, if that's the reason why they've struggled in Chicago before, might have their best chance to win in Chicago in a long, long time because there ain't nothing to do. Everything is closed. Everybody's quarantined.

Everything's on lockdown. There's no fun to be had. Well, there isn't as much fun to be had in Chicago as there usually is. I think that might be part of the reason why. I like it. Along those lines, I might go with the several times I've been to Chicago, I ate my face off. Yeah.

I mean, I just ate until I couldn't move because there's so much good food in Chicago. So that would be another theory. Rami, always great to catch up with you. I think everyone wishes you well, so I won't bother. No, I'm just kidding. Fair enough. Hopefully things work out for you. everyone wishes you well so i won't bother uh no i'm just kidding fair enough hopefully things

work out for you and uh you know this it's always it's always fun after you know vikings and bears games when you would walk into the studio covered in all bear stuff with bears pants and sock everything else because you're so great to catch up with you this was really fun all the preach at a collar glad to see you you're crushing it with this this website and this podcast dude so uh always all the pleasure man happy to see that things are going well with you as well dude even though sports took a break your business didn't you have to keep moving and that means hiring is more important than ever indeed is here to help indeed.com is the number one job site in the world because Indeed gets you the best people fast. Unlike other sites, Indeed gets you full control and payment

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BetOnline gives you more options to wager than anywhere else. You can get in on their season opening bonuses today We'll be right back. All one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. Okay, before we put a wrap on the show for today, I'm going to hand it over to intern Paul, who is contributing his first interview in our Skoll Searching efforts, where he is reaching out to reporters who cover the top quarterback prospects to bring us the latest information on several of the players that I know you guys are interested in for this upcoming draft. And so he begins by looking deep into Trey Lance. Turn it over to

Intern Paul. Hello and welcome to this special Skoll Searching segment of the Purple Insider podcast. I am Paul Hodwanek, or as many of you may know me as Intern Paul, and today we are breaking down Trey Lance. So to do that, we have North Dakota State beat reporter for Informed News, Jeff Kolpak. How are you doing today? It's all good. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm excited to talk about Trey Lance. He's a guy that not a lot of people probably know much about. Maybe some Minnesotans know about him because he did go to Marshall High School, so maybe they have that background knowledge. But he's relatively unknown amongst the quarterbacks that are projected

to maybe go in the top five, obviously much less known than Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields. And so I think this will be really interesting to kind of hear about him and how he's grown. And so first I just want to ask you, where did he come from? I know he came from Marshall, but he obviously didn't have many offers to come to schools like Minnesota or any other big Power 5 conferences. So the fact that he's going to be a top five picker potentially

is a pretty big deal. So kind of give us a sense of his background and where he came from. Right. And, in fact, I'll start off by correcting a little bit there. I think he had an offer to go to Minnesota, but as a linebacker. I think they wanted him on defense. And I could see that. He's 6'3", coming out of high school, and just a very athletic big guy.

Probably be a hell of a linebacker prospect, I'm sure. But NDSU wanted him as a quarterback, and they recruited him as a quarterback. And the Bison have had a pretty good track record of late, and that certainly didn't help with Carson Wentz, the number two pick in the 2016 draft, and Easton Stick went in the fifth round a couple years ago with the Los Angeles Chargers. Now here comes three in a row, it sounds like, with Trey Lance.

Literally came out of nowhere on the national scope of things for sure. And here's the thing. I can't get my head around this, and it's almost difficult to do so. But for an FCS quarterback to come out early is nuts, right? Or any quarterback almost to come out early is kind of crazy. But for an FCS guy, and only after one year of starting to do so, it's just, you know, it's off the grid, and it's weird. Yeah, and I would assume not many people have seen Trey Lance play,

having only the one season. Obviously, a remarkable season. Didn't throw an interception. 26 touchdowns, I believe. Really solid completion percentage and just good all around the board and is really good with his legs. So for people that haven't watched him, what kind of quarterback is he? Maybe if you could compare him to someone in the NFL or someone recently,

like what would the Vikings be getting if Trey Lance were to be drafted? Well, he checks all the boxes as far as a prospect at the professional level. Dual threat's the thing now, right? That's why Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields are so highly regarded. They can do some damage with their legs and their arm, and Trey's no different. He's got a strong arm. He's always got a strong arm, throws a nice deep ball, was pretty accurate with that even as a redshirt freshman last year.

Pretty smart. You know, he's one of these all-academic guys, so I assume he can read defenses with the best of them. That was Carson's. One of his biggest attributes was Carson was a 4.0 and never got a B in his life. Guy was extremely smart, is extremely smart. I think Trey and Easton

are both in that mold where they can get to the second, third, fourth check down. Here's one thing about Trey, and we don't know this yet. He had a really good offensive line. His left tackle is probably going to get drafted

in the top three rounds. It's Dylan Raines from Becker, Minnesota. He's got a right tackle who may be a prospect after the spring. So he had a really good offensive line. And there's times when he went back to pass last year, he got a ham sandwich and thrown the ball.

I could have got up and stretched and sat down and he could probably still have a ball in the pocket. So he had a really good offensive line. We have not really seen him under intense duress throughout an entire game. But I guess until we see that, we just don't know how he'll handle that. Yeah, and I think NDSU quarterbacks, obviously we've seen a couple of them come out recently. There's always the element of who did they really play,

how much does that affect them. And Vikings fans hearing the offensive line point will say, well, if he comes here, that's definitely not going to be the case, so that could raise some questions, but like you said, he only had one pass in 2018 when he was redshirted, and then just burst onto the scene. Was that something that NDSU expected, or was this a surprise? Because they had Carson Wentz, then they had Easton Sick. It's probably not Trey Lance's fault he didn't start his first year when you have Easton Sick, a guy that I think is the most winningest quarterback in FCS history, so that's not necessarily a knock on him. But did you expect, or did the team expect for him to have as much success

as he did last season? Well, they expected him to be the guy. I mean, he was the guy since the day he was recruited. So, you know, you're going to spend one year as a true freshman behind Easton's stick. You're going to follow Easton's every move. You're going to watch film with him, which he did, and basically learned a ton. And he was always groomed to be that guy. Now, you know, of course, his performance, nobody would have expected that.

16-0 team. You know, he had a couple passes that probably should have been picked, but they weren't. But, you know, to go through a year without an interception and just the damage he did against James Madison, the telegame with his legs was, I think set him apart, too. He's fast. I mean, this guy can move.

He is fast. He's big. He's kind of a baby-faced kid. I think he's going to get bigger yet. I remember as a true freshman, I'm looking at this kid going, he's probably like 17 years old, you know, at the time, and thinking, man, you've got a lot of room to grow. So he came here 6'3".

He's now 6'4". So he must have grown an inch somewhere around there he's what 225 pounds i think he can get to 235 no problem 240 he's got that kind of a of a body and he's just a kid you know when the when when the draft happens this spring he's not going to be able to go and have a beer because he won't be old enough. You know, he'll be 20 years old. So what you're getting is a guy with incredible potential. Ideally, Paul, he'd have to go to a situation where he could maybe sit a little bit and learn. I mean, here's how I approach Trey Lance.

You know, should he come out? Yes. Is he ready? I don't think he's ready. He's not ready for the pro level, but you could say that about a lot of guys, I guess, that they're not ready for the pro level, but when you're being mentioned as high as he is, yeah, you got to come out and take the money right now and go. Yeah, and that would fit a situation like the Vikings who have an expensive quarterback who most likely will be on the roster next year. Lance wouldn't have the pressure of

going in right away, and that was kind of my next question because Carson Wentz is going to be the natural comparison to him just because they're both coming out of school. They're both going to be really high picks, both from NDSU, not normally a place where people are looking for quarterbacks. Maybe now they will be. But if you were to compare Wentz and Lance in terms of being ready, because Wentz came in and started right away, and just in terms of their overall game, where are they different? Where are they similar? And how naturally are Lance and Wentz going to fit

when they're just going to be compared going forward? Wentz was obviously older. He was a fifth-year senior when he got drafted, so he had that advantage. He had the advantage of working under, and let's not forget about the nc quarterbacks coach daniel randy headberg so uh trade will be his third straight quarterback that he'll have drafted i don't know how many assistant coaches out there in the country i don't care what level have had that maybe maybe clumpson maybe it was somebody out there i should probably look into

that actually but randy headberg is a guy who in the late 70s was drafted by Tampa. He's one of the first guys. Had a cup of coffee in the NFL. Got a head coach at Division II for a little bit. But here's a guy who just knows how to develop quarterbacks. They run a pro-style system. They huddle up. They do all these things that the NFL really likes about.

And they read defenses, and they get the checkdowns. And it's not analytic, robotic quarterback. You've got to go to the line of scrimmage, and you often sometimes have to change the play, and you've got to be smart enough to do that. So NDSU develops that kind of quarterback where when they get to the NFL, this stuff isn't new to them. They can see where the safeties are.

They can see linebackers inching up, and they change plays. They do it all the time at ADSU. So, you know, I think the pros really like that in Bison quarterbacks. You don't have to teach that. That's already been instilled into their system already. And Trey is right there with the best one. I mean, and we don't know. I'm in the press box.

I don't know when they're changing plays. I'm way up in the Uyghur seats. But what I understand and what I hear and when I listen to Hedberg, yeah, Trey's pretty good. He got into different sets, different pass protections, and in most cases made the right calls. Off the field, what is he kind of like? Because the Vikings fans and Vikings players fell in love with Teddy Bridgewater.

He was kind of that natural leader. Kirk Cousins has left a little bit to be desired, I think, both by players and fans in terms of just his personality. What's Lance like? Is he, from what you heard, a leader in that locker room? And just off the field, is he more of a quiet guy, an outgoing guy? What's he like? Well, yeah, well, he blocked me on Twitter lately.

I don't know why. I don't know if I've written a negative word about the guy. So I don't know what he's doing on Twitter these days. But he's a leader guy, there's no doubt. He started a Bible study class for kids over Zoom during the pandemic. I think he probably would have been a captain coming up here, you know, eventually if not this year, the next year, if he would have stayed around. Yeah, certainly a kid, and he led the social justice movement around campus here.

And he put himself out there in that regard too. So, yeah, there's certainly leadership qualities there. You know, certainly I think he's a pretty poised kid. You know, here's one thing, okay? If you're blocking me on Twitter, if I made him, pissed him off somehow, I have no idea, he better figure that part of it out because, you know, the media at the NFL level is not going to be Jeff Kovac in Fargo, North Dakota, I can guarantee you that.

So he'll have to adjust to that and adjust to those kind of scrutiny of being on a national level. But, yeah, solid character kid. Absolutely no red flags there whatsoever. I wonder, from your perspective, how do you think him not getting a chance to play other than the one game this year just like affects his development because obviously you've talked about Easton Stick, Carson Wentz both were there for a really long time Lance has only had the one year that's probably going to be a little bit of a knock on him in terms of I mean a lot of

quarterbacks are coming in with not that much experience but especially a quarterback from a small school that didn't probably have a ton of buzz last year was supposed to get that buzz this year and then it just didn't happen so in terms of just development I don't you probably can't speak to where he would get drafted but just from not being able to play how do you think that could affect him sure that's a risk I mean and like I said uh should he go yeah is he ready to go I don't think he's ready to go i don't think he's nfl ready yet another year you know this fall ideally it would have been would have been a good deal for him he could have seen more defenses just what they call pictures you know that's what all the quarterback coaches say that he hadn't seen he would have benefited from seeing more pictures of defenses and so that

will affect him i don't know nobody knows it affect him? I don't know. Nobody knows that now because we don't know. We'll never know. But, yeah, that's a risk. I mean, that quarterback experience is a big deal, and it's almost too bad he didn't have this next year to, I think, really further his development and his learning curve. Did he at any point seem like he was considering staying,

or was it always, I'm going to go? He never tipped his hand one way or the other, so we don't know. But the fact he announced it, the Bison played Central Arkansas on Saturday, and the fact he went in on Sunday, I believe, and met with the coaches and told them his decision would lead you to believe that he didn't wake up Sunday morning and say you know what I think I'm gonna turn early I'm sure this decision that was made for a while now and and so and his dad is he's a football guy his dad was a very good player at Southwest State uh his dad's very knowledgeable about the game his mom was a volleyball player I mean these people are they didn't wake up on, you know,

not knowing anything either. So I think he's got some strong family guidance there, and he must have, I assume, got some pretty good NFL advice that he's going to be one of the top quarterbacks taken and done deal. You know, and it's good that he decided now. It's good. You're not leaving NDSU hanging out to dry this spring because the FCS is playing this spring.

And so you don't have NDSU coaches wondering, okay, is he going to be here or not? He could have waited until mid-January to make his decision by NFL rules. But the fact that he made it right away, I think, is good for the school. Now the Bison can move on with their next quarterback, and Trey can move on with his career. I'll end with this.

This is a two-parter, but if it'll work in the NFL, why do you believe Trey Lance will be good? And then if it won't work, what do you think goes wrong, what goes right? If it'll work, he's a great athlete, and he's got that dual threat capability. He's just he he's a he's a great athlete and he's got that dual threat capability he's got a strong arm he's a smart kid he's gonna have to develop he's gonna have to handle you know we saw that last night with ben denucci at dallas so ben denucci was the title game quarterback against james madison the bison played james madison it was wentz versus denucci or what i'm sorry, and Lance versus DiNucci.

DiNucci looked out of, you know, he looked overmatched. And that's why Trey outshone him. Trey was the superior quarterback in the FCS title game last year. And we saw that last night. DiNucci was overmatched. Now, you know, will Trey be able just to be better as a younger quarterback when he gets there? Now, if it doesn't work, to me, it's just maybe that's a good question. I don't know.

I've never seen him not work. So, you know, he was good right away. He was great last year. I've never really seen him have a bad game, so I really don't know how to answer that question other than some unforeseen circumstances where NFL defenses start confusing him and he doesn't have a good old line and can't hold up to the pressure. We haven't seen that. He rarely got pressured last year.

And when he did, he had the ability to take off and outrun everybody. So we'll see on that regard. Well, Jeff, I appreciate you taking the time. Again, Jeff Kolpak for inform.com. I'm sure, Vikings fans, you should be paying attention to Jeff's work. He'll most likely be writing about Lance here upcoming for the draft, and then probably next year when whatever quarterback hasn't played yet shines and is another draft pick because that just seems to be the quarterback mill is now running

in North Dakota State. So thank you, Jeff. You bet, Paul. Have a good day.